CELEBRATING NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK: My First Library

Central Avenue Library, Minneapolis, Minnesota, built in 1915

National Library Week (April 3 - 9, 2022) is a time to celebrate our nation's libraries, library workers' contributions and promote library use and support. First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and observed in libraries across the country each April.

I have been going to the library ever since I can remember. When I was four years old my family moved to Northeast Minneapolis and family trips to the public library on Central Avenue were a Saturday morning ritual. While my parents picked out their books in the main room upstairs, my brothers and I scoured the shelves in the downstairs children’s room. I liked story books like Madeline, Curious George and Ferdinand. Steve loved books about trains. Peter liked sports and Tom picked out books about animals. Later, back in our apartment at North East Neighborhood House, we crowded onto the sofa or one of our beds and listened as our parents read to us. 

Among our favorite books was Minn of the Mississippi by Holling C. Hollings, packed with facts and detailed illustrations about everything from the history of the Earth to cell division. Minn, a snapping turtle, travels the length of the Mississippi River from its headwaters in northern Minnesota to the Delta in Louisiana. It was easy to imagine the story. We caught snapping turtles lurking in the reeds along the shore at Camp Bovey. The Mississippi River was just a few blocks from our home at North East Neighborhood House, its deep waters rushing over St. Anthony Falls, powering the flour mills flanking the riverbanks. Every kid, including me, could rattle off—MI-SS-I-SS-I-PP-I --as proof of their spelling prowess. When I was thirteen, our family visited the Mississippi’s source in Itasca State Park, where Minn begins his journey south. I attempted to cross the narrow stream that pours out of the lake. But walking across the Mississippi isn’t so easy. I took off my shoes and got halfway to the other side, but the rocks were slippery and the water swift. I lost my footing and fell in. 

Note: The Central Avenue Library building that I remember from my childhood was built in 1915 with funds from Andrew Carnegie. It was torn down in 1971 and replaced with a modern glass and brick building, then remodeled and enlarged in 2011.